To the Editor: By focusing on the observed low correlations between the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test (UMAT) and academic scores at the University of Queensland (UQ), Wilkinson and colleagues1 conclude that the UMAT is a poor predictor of medical student performance. Alternatively, one could focus on the very high mean and low variance grade point average (GPA) scores of the UQ student cohort and conclude that the use of UMAT scores was clearly very successful in identifying a high-performing group of students.
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- Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW.
- 1. Wilkinson D, Zhang J, Parker M. Predictive validity of the Undergraduate Medicine and Health Sciences Admission Test for medical students’ academic performance. Med J Aust 2011; 194: 341-344. <MJA full text>
- 2. Hunter JE, Schmidt FL, Huy L. Implications of direct and indirect range restriction for meta-analysis methods and findings. J Appl Psychol 2006; 91: 594-612.